COLUMBIA RIVER FROM A MID-19TH CENTURY PERSPECTIVE AND TODAY

Europeans – albeit in American-form – have only been present in the Pacific Northwest for a little over 200 years.  The main push of emigrants did not start until the mid-1840’s.  Here our focus is on the mid-19th century Columbia River area views. A lot has changed since then. Some things remain timeless, however.  The natural beauty of the landscape a prime example.  Even here dramatic change does not go unnoticed.

A restored version of James Madison Alden’s tryptich view over Fort Dalles.

Fort Dalles Museum.

View over The Dalles today to compare – 160 years later.

VISUAL MEMORY

1859 photo of Fort Umpqua by Lorenzo Lorain.

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View by Lorain over the little fort towards the Umpqua River beyond – 1859.

Photography did not take off in the Northwest until the latter part of the 19th century.  A few early pioneers did freeze time such as at Fort Umpqua – Lieutenant Lorenzo Lorain and Dr Edward Vollum – in 1859.

BEFORE THE CAMERA

Most of the early memories of the countryside come from artists paintings and drawings.  In this case, I am focusing on the mid-19th century Columbia River, especially the Gorge where the river cuts dramatically through the Cascade Mountain range, the only river to do so. Amazing pictures providing evidence the Columbia River Gorge was just as amazing in the 1850’s as today.

The paintings and drawings also demonstrate why emigrants had to take to the water to finish their long trek tp Oregon. With today’s river-level freeway and railway it is easy to forget the freeway has only been present since 1954. The first highway – parts of it seen in the different sections of the Old Historic Columbia Highway – was not completed until 1922. Even this highway was far from the fast, relatively easy link between western Oregon and the east existing today. Any highway labelled “scenic” is bound to be slow and this narrow cliff-hugging two-laned road is no exception.

In particular, I will focus on two particular artists, both with connections to the U.S. Army, who have much of their works collected at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. https://beinecke.library.yale.edu Many of the vantage points used by these and other artists can be replicated today to a get a then and now look at features of the Pacific Northwest. Some scenes, time has left little altered. In other cases, towns have grown up, though the general view remains recognizable after 140 years. Some of the natural features are gone – the Dalles, the Cascade Rapids. Other scenes capture historical moments lost to us today – the old forts, Cascade portage roads, the people.

PART-TIME ARTIST

Dr Joseph Bullock Brown
The surgeon at Fort Dalles – Dr Joseph Bullock Brown.

Brown’s view of The Dalles settlement late in the 1850’s.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Dr. Joseph Bullock Brown served as Army physician at Fort Dalles from 1857 until 1861.  In his spare time, he drew with several collected at Yale.  Brown moved to the East with the onset of the Civil War working his way from up to medical director of the Fourth Corps in the Army of the Potomac before moving west to serve in the Assistant Surgeon General’s Office in St. Louis and Louisville.  For service in the harbor of New York during a cholera epidemic, Brown was rewarded with a brevet to Brigadier general.  He continued his career after the war as medical director for the Department of the Platte coving most of the northern Great Plains region.

Watercolor painting done by Dr. Brown of Fort Dalles.

Beinecke Library Yale University

Drawing by Brown of the Old Officers’ Quarters at Fort Dalles.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Brown’s drawings of the mid-19th century Columbia River area show some of the areas he served at – Fort Vancouver and Fort Dalles.  The drawings give a truer sense of what life was like for the soldiers and their families living at – or beyond – the edge of the “civilized” world of the time.

MILITARY SURVEYOR-ARTISTS

jAMES MADISON ALDEN AND WILLIAM mCMURTRIE

James Madison Alden as a young man before setting out to the Northwest.

Fort Vancouver, Oregon Hudson Bay fort below from the U.S. fort above.

1854 by Alden. Beinecke Library – Yale University

The drawings augment those drawn by those of another military artist, James Madison Alden.  Alden served as survey artist at the age of 20 in the Navy for an 1854 Pacific Coast Survey expedition commanded by his uncle, James Alden aboard the steamship USS Active.  This was the first of several cruises and inland treks up and down the coast, from California to British Columbia including scenes from the Sierra Nevada of California like Yosemite Valley.

Columbia Rapids 1857 drawn by William McMurtrie

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Grand Rapids of the Columbia – 1857 drawing to watercolor painting by Alden.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

He was initially put together with a more senior artist, William Birch McMurtrie.  Some of McMurtrie’s work survives today – best seen in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and his sketchbook is at the University of California, Berkeley.  At some sights, both men were directed to put down their images of the same scene. There pictures together give us an excellent idea of what the mid-19th century Columbia River region appeared as.

Old Astoria, From Leonard & Green’s Store, Astor’s Point August 4, 1854 by Alden

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Military outpost at Astoria McMurtrie

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

William B. McMurtrie portrait painted by Alden in 1858.

McMurtrie’s view of Fort Dalles – compare to Alden’s above – 1857.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Sand bar on the Columbia River painted by McMurtrie.

Cascade on the Left Bank by Alden 1857 – possibly Horsetail Falls.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

cascades portage

Mountain Valley with a Camp by McMurtrie showing Fort Cascades at lower Cascades of the Columbia

Eagle Creek Canyon on the left. 1857 – Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Columbia R. on the Cascade Portage – 1857 by Alden.

Franz Stenzel says the little fort seen across the river was Fort Rains, though it looks more like Lugenbeel. The wooden planked portage road shown here on the Oregon side dates from 1855.

Upper Cascades Columbia R. – an Alden view from 1857 showing Fort Lugenbee

Franz Stenzel notes it as Ft Rains. Ruckel Ridge in the background.

From Upper Cascades looking up Columbia R. – another 1857 view from Alden.

This was the end of the Oregon-side portage road where Cascade Locks is today.

then and now

Young’s Falls 1857 Alden. Beinecke Library – Yale University
Young’s Falls in its wintery glory today.
Waterfall Cascades 1857 by Alden showing the two waterfalls of McCord Creek – Elowah and Upper McCord. Beinecke Library – Yale University

Elowah Falls in the distance.

Elowah and Upper McCord Falls can be seen on the other side of the Columbia River on the left – Nesmith Point rising to the right. From Hamilton Mountain on the Washington side.

Obelisk Rock below Cascades 1857 by Alden.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Pilot Rock – formerly Obelisk Rock – from above the waterfall at Cape Horn.

The view is upriver on a cold and windy day.

Cascades, Columbia River below the Rapids 1857 by Alden

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Shows Katani Rock and St Peter’s Dome with Nesmith Point towering above.

Cathedral 2500 feet high, Columbia r. Alden 1857

Closer view of St Peter’s Dome. Beinecke Library – Yale University

with the northwestern border survey

In 1860, Alden became the official artist for the Northwestern Border Survey.  With this duty, he painted and drew from the Puget Sound to the Continental Divide.  On his return from the north, he made his way down the Palouse River valley as winter came on.

Great Falls of the Palouse River from Summit of Cliffs on right bank.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Alden’s Palouse Falls return trip for the Northwestern Border Commission in 1860 .

Canon of Palouse River looking South from a point just below the falls Great Falls.

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Alden’s view down the Palouse River canyon beyond the falls – 1860

A view of Palouse Falls today – very similar to what Alden saw in 1860.
Canyon of the Palouse below the Falls is still as ‘grand’ as Alden painted it.

Back in San Francisco, Alden continued back to the east coast serving out his assignment in Washington D.C.  He re-enlisted in the Navy in 1863, becoming secretary to Admiral David Porter.  He spent the next 28 years with Porter, never returning to the Northwest.  Alden lies with his wife, Frances, at Arlington National Cemetery.

wILLIAM HENRY TAPPAN AND GEORGE GIBBS

Wascopam Mission, later Fort Drum – drawn and engraved by William Tappan and George Gibbs – 1848.

William Henry Tappan was an artist and engraver from Boston.  He spent six months with the Missouri Mounted Volunteers in Nebraska in 1848 illustrating and collecting from the countryside.  The following year, he came to Oregon as the artist-surveyor of the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen as they came out to the new territory in response to the Cayuse War.  One of his partners on the trip was George Gibbs, a lawyer and artist who would add many other titles to his CV as life went on – philologist, geologist, public official, etc.  Both Gibbs and Tappan would stay on in Oregon after they arrived.  We have them to thank for the engraving of the Wascopam Mission preceding the Army fort which came later.

Tappan became the postmaster for Oregon City while working also with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  He helped lay out the town of St Helens with Henry M. Knighton.  Tappan moved on to Colorado in 1864 before returning to his native Manchester, New Hampshire where he would eventually die.

JOHN MIX STANLEY

Mountain Landscape with Indians – Detroit Institute of Arts – John Mix Stanley. Appears to be looking across the Columbia River at the mouth of Hood River with an artist additional waterfall.

John Mix Stanley was one of the artist-explorers who came west in the 1830-1840’s to paint both the landscapes and the Native Americans who lived in the west.  He first came west after spending some time painting in what became Oklahoma with the battalion of Stephen Kearny sent to help conquer California during the Mexican-American War.  He then moved north to Oregon eventually becoming acquainted with the Northern Pacific Railroad expedition led by Isaac Stevens.  His views along with Sohon, Gustavus (1825-1903) – HistoryLink.org helped illustrate Stevens’ report.  Much of Stanley’s work was destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire.  A few surviving paintings of the mid-19th century Columbia River region survive though most of his work comes from the cumulative Steven’s report.

Self portrait – John Mix Stanley

John Mix Stanley’s version of the Cascade Rapids

John Mix Stanley – Peluse Falls; 1860; Toned lithograph; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Walla Walla by Stanley

Hudson Bay fort at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers

Oregon City painted by Stanley.
The Dalles with Mt Hood beyond by John Mix Stanley.

OTHERS BEFORE AND AFTERWARDS

THE SPY, HENRY WARRE

An 1845 view of Oregon City by Sir Henry James Warre.

A couple of other artists whose work remains today would have to include the British spy Henry James Warre.  He moved through the Oregon Country in 1841.  Under the guise of a traveler, Warre made sketches of places where the British Army may have been called upon to fight a potential border war with the upstart American nation – 54 – 50 or Fight! in reverse.

Le Dalles with Mt Hood beyond by Warre.

One interesting picture from Warre was replicated of Astoria years later by Alden.  To Warre, Astoria was still Fort George, the name given to it when the British captured the little post during the War of 1812.  Warre went on to become a British general commanding troops in the Crimean War and retired as commander of the Army of Bengal in India. His views are on a slightly earlier mid-19th century Columbia River region than Alden.

1841 view of Astoria though titled Fort George by Warre

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Old Astoria from Union House by Alden 1854

Beinecke Library – Yale University

Henry James Warren as a British general.

Hudson Bay fort at Fort Vancouver 1848

Hudson Bay fort; Toned lithograph (hand-colored); Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Mount Hood by Henry Warre from the north bank of the Columbia at the entrance to the Gorge in the west – 1848.
Fort Vancouver 1848 – by Warre – Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
1848 view of Oregon City from Warre – Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

PAUL KANE

Mt St Helens eruption 1847 from Paul Kane.

Another artist, more well known in Canada, was Paul Kane.  He also spent time in the middle of the 1840’s at Hudson Bay’s Fort Vancouver.  Kane’s best-known work concerning the Northwest was his depiction of the 1847 eruption of Mt St Helens. A little fanciful with artistic license, he does accurately show the eruption emanating from a side vent of the mountain.

MOVING ON WITH carleton e. watkins and wILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

Carleton E. Watkins came from Oneota, New York. He was one of the first professional photographers on the West Coast. His photographs – most made into stereographs – were responsible for Yosemite being made into a national park by the U.S. Congress. He has left many historic pictures of the mid-19th century Columbia River from the period just after the Civil War.

1867 stereogram of Rooster Rock by Carleton Watkins.

Stereogram of the Upper Cascades, also 1867 by Watkins.

Some of the scenes from earlier paintings show up in some of the Watkins’ photos and postcards from the latter part of the century.

William Henry Jackson started as a painter early on.  He became an accomplished photographer with time moving all over the West compiling a huge inventory of photos. His pictures were sold to the Detroit Photographic Company – later, the Detroit Publishing Company – where color was added to the pictures to turn them into postcards. Many include similar magnificent views to those of the mid-19th century Columbia River earlier painted by Alden and the others. The same views still recognizable before bigger changes came about in the middle of the 20th century.

The Cascades of the Columbia River – postcard by Jackson

Steamer just below the Upper Cascade – 1901.

William Henry Jackson as a young man about to serve his short term with the 12th Vermont Volunteer Infantry.
Barlow Cutoff by William Henry Jackson – 1930.

Jackson never gave up painting either. His 1930 painting of the Barlow Cutoff gives us a post-pioneer view of what that trail could have been like. 

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